“I think there is nothing that any of us would like to see more than Nick living back with his family,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said on Wednesday.

K-9 Nick, a Belgian Malinois, was purchased by the county, using Homeland Security funds, and then provided to the Plymouth Township Police Department, according to officials. Fox, a five-year veteran of the Plymouth department, and Nick became partners and graduated from the Philadelphia Police Canine Academy.

County officials, Ferman said, are reviewing paperwork and cutting through the “red tape” to try to release Nick back to the police department and then reunite Nick with the Fox family in New Hanover.

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“What we would like to have happen is that the dog would be released from the county back to the Fox family,” said Ferman, adding she and Plymouth Police Chief Joseph Lawrence have been working diligently with county commissioners’ Chairman Josh Shapiro and the county’s Public Safety Department, to try to make the permanent reunion occur.

Fox, who was fatally shot in the line of duty Sept. 13 after investigating a hit-and-run crash and while pursuing the suspect, is the first Plymouth officer ever to die in the line of duty. Fox, who was killed a day before his 35th birthday, is survived by his pregnant wife, Lynsay, and their daughter Kadence.

Nick, who was by Fox’s side during the Sept. 13 incident, survived the ambush but suffered a graze bullet wound and has been receiving veterinary care.

Nick previously had lived with the Fox family while partnered with Fox, officials said.